Life by the Lunar Cycle
by that's my piranha
Summary: “He’s thoughts were elsewhere, focused on the wolf getting much too comfortably boisterous inside his torso.” When Oz begins missing more school than ever before, Willow isn’t so sure if it’s strictly ‘Dingoe’ business, or if he’s purposely avoiding her
1. Chapter 1

_Okay this is my first fanfiction in (no joke) about 5 years, so hopefully it isn't too rusty. I apologise for any grammar or spelling mistakes (those sorts of things really aren't my strong suit, so if I've missed any I apologise). Anyway, all the wonderful BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and his genius! Oz/Willow pairing, set some time around season 3 (senior year, can't pinpoint when exactly. Also the "fluke" in any way shape or form hasn't occurred. I always thought that it was nice that Xander had Oz around as a male friend - the only one his age he really gets for a while after Jesse dies, so in my universe that wasn't ruined by the "fluke")._

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Oz casually strolled across the grass towards the open doors of Sunnydale High. A string of late night gigs had him suppressing a yawn, as the morning air tugged at his open bowling shirt and hair. He nodded casually to a classmate, before continuing towards the rush of students surrounding the main doors. Slipping inside he made his way through the Monday morning hallway rush; eyes peeled for any sign of a certain red head.

"Hey Oz, my man!" Oz looked down the hall to see the unmistakable form of Xander Harris wildly waving his arms in a dramatic welcome. Nodding in recognition he made his way towards him.

Xander grinned to himself and anyone around him that happened to be watching. Being the mate of a guitarist like Oz helped give him the sort of street creed he's geeky self didn't often receive: and he loved it. He bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for the spiky haired blonde to reach him, finally slapping the shorter boy on the back as he reached his side.

"How was the gig last night? Our good friends at UC Sunnydale loving the Dingoes?" He said, a little louder than necessary. Oz looked up at the highly enthused youth with his regular non-committal expression.

"Well, no vegetables were thrown; so I'd say there were mutual feelings of acceptance."

The two began to make their way down the hall side by side. Oz pushed his hands deep in his pockets as Xander bounced around him, enjoying the attention he gained being seen with someone of Oz's notability. Oz himself had never really been aware of the recognition he received from some of the other students. Today was no exception as he continued his relentless search for Willow.

"All right! College acceptance is a go!" Xander raised his hand for a high-five, quickly retracting it as he realised that Oz's head was somewhere else. They paused as they reached the end of the corridor and Oz finally turned to look up at his friend.

"Hey, you seen Wil anywhere?"

"Off with the Buffmister I presume." Xander responded, finally cluing in to Oz's distraction. "She wasn't expecting you back today, so you're making with the element of surprise there." Xander grinned goofily as Oz nodded, turning back to scanning the crowd. "Hey we bronzing it tonight?" Xander attempted to re-command his attention; bouncing around him on the balls of his feet, and lightly punching him on the arm playfully.

"Can't." Oz said not looking back at him but merely giving a slight incline of his head towards the ceiling. Xander stopped buzzing momentarily, taking on a slightly more solemn tone.

"Right, wasn't thinking." He responded rather awkwardly raising a free hand to run it through his hair. Oz turned back to look at him, feeling bad for killing his friends buzz. In a rare occasion, he felt the unnatural urge to speak up. They were both spared however by an excited squeak from further down the hall.

"Oz!" The boys turned to see a fuzzy jumper clad Willow skipping towards them; Buffy following at a slight distance.

"Hey," Oz smiled at her slightly, closing the distance and embracing her, unconsciously breathing in the smell of her hair and feeling a rumble from deep within himself. He pulled back to see her smiling at him, he took both her hands as she turned to Xander and Buffy.

"It's Oz, Oz is here, with the school and Oz!" Willow babbled. The werewolf couldn't help but slip into his signature half smile. He heard a chuckle.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the ever articulate Willow Rosenberg." Buffy teased, clutching her coat and smiling at the couples blissful expressions. The four resumed their journey down the corridor. Oz looked straight ahead, half-smile still on his face. The banter of Xander and Buffy off to his right went straight in one ear and out the other. He felt Willow squeeze his hand beside him and turned to see her starring at him, a look of concern and curiosity on her face.

"I didn't expect you back this morning; I thought you'd want to sleep after your gig last night. Oh, I didn't ask you how your gig was! I'm being such a bad girlfriend it's just I wasn't thinking because I didn't expect you to be here today, not that I'm not glad to see you! I'm really glad, all with the gladness!" Oz grinned. He really did like her giddy. Willow seemed to take this as a sign that he wasn't offended and allowed herself to slow down slightly. "It's just, you've been gone so much lately. With the band and then catching up on the sleep you've missed. I thought you wouldn't really be turning up 'till..." She paused lowering her voice. "You know 'till you had to be," she finished, slightly inkling her head towards the ceiling just as he had a few moment before.

"Well you know what they say, come for the book cage stay for the books." Willow smiled slightly, but Oz noted it didn't quite meet your eyes. "Plus, you know I was hoping I might run into this little red-headed girl I know. Very cute. You'd like her." Oz noted with care that this time the smile truly met her eyes and made them sparkle spectacularly. He loved it when her eyes sparkled like that. He felt his torso grow warm, and I rumble pass through him. There he was again. The wolf was waking up. He frowned, placing a hand on his torso, attempting to hold him in just a little longer. He saw Willow frown slightly out of the corner of his eye. He was saved the explanation.

"Well, well if it isn't Mr Osbourne, cared to return to us have you? Your sudden string of absences is almost putting your misadventures of last year to shame." The quartet stopped as Principal Snider addressed them, smirk evident on his face. He may not have liked teenagers, but he certainly enjoyed this part of his job. "Anyone would guess that you fancied taking your senior year a third time."

"Not so much actually." Oz replied calmly, using a lot more effort than he would normally require to keep his tone level. He could feel the wolf stirring inside him, egging him on to lose his temper.

"In that case, I would encourage you to start turning up to your classesa little more." Snider smirked at him once again before allowing himself the opportunity to take in the rest of the assembled scoobies. "Though with friends like these I can see why you wouldn't bother showing up." He grimaced at Buffy in particular, as if he had just encountered something particularly unpleasant. He's eyes flicked past them and onto a group of boys playing soccer with a discarded drink can. "This is not a playground people!" He called, moving beyond the group, clearly on his way to ruin someone else's morning.

"He's really such a pleasant guy," Xander said sarcastically.

"I know," Buffy chimed in as they started moving down the hall once again "I just can't think how he's ended up with such a reputation for being so slimy, and repulsive..."

"You're forgetting unreasonable..."

"... creepy, unpleasant..."

Oz listened as they continued to insult Snider, preferring to remain silent off to the side. He's thoughts were elsewhere, focused on the wolf who he could feel getting much too comfortably boisterous inside his torso.

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_Thoughts? Queries? Ask Away! :)_


	2. Chapter 2

_Thanks so much to everyone who read the first chapter, and especially the people who took the time to review. It was so wonderfull to get some feedback and encouragment (so if that was you, give yourself a pat on the back and eat a cookie, you deserve it)! Enjoy._

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Willow sat cross legged on the large wooden table, which took pride of place in the lower level of the Sunnydale High Library. She had so often spent her nights perched around it, a thick volume of demon myth, lore or history in hand. Tonight, however, she favoured a more compact math textbook, which she starred at with equal intensity as if it were a forewarning of the apocalypse. The column of answers mocked her, and she inched her face even closer to the page trying desperately to understand how she had been so entirely off in her own working. Was she off her game? Was she losing her nerve? What if she'd lost her smarts? She'd end up a dunce, stuck in the corner with a large mocking hat with a 'D', sucking her thumb in shame! How could she cope? She'd always been Willow; smart, reliable book savvy Willow! What if so much time spent on the Hellmouth was distracting her from her study? With so much demonology crammed in to her brain, perhaps there was simply no longer any space for the concepts of math or history! Frustrated and frazzled beyond compare it dawned on her that the answers she was studying so fiercely were in fact from a different section of the textbook. She outwardly groaned and allowed herself to fall backward on the large desk, pulling her textbook with her.

"Everything alright out there?" She heard a voice call. She shifted her position to look towards Giles' office.

"Yeah, sorry Giles it's only me. He's still sleeping."

"Right. Good, good." A moment later Giles appeared in the doorway to his office. He was carefully cleaning his glasses with a white handkerchief, and looking thoughtfully towards the book cage. He perched them back on the bridge of his nose and turned his attention to Willow, still sprawled out on top of the table (a habit she seemed to have picked up from Buffy – whom had never taken so well to the concept of sitting still on a chair, Slayer energy and all). "Took a good deal longer than usual." He nodded towards the cage thoughtfully.

Willow sat up and sighed, gazing almost sadly at the werewolf in the book cage. Oz had sure been in a mood tonight. Finally asleep he had curled himself up at the end of the cage closest to her. Three of the wolfs claws protruded out the holes in the cage, almost as if he was attempting to reach out towards her.

"Well, he's just been so stressed lately. M-Maybe wolfy Oz was just taking out some pent up frustration?" Willow finished brightly, trying to convince herself that more than anything. Yeah, band stress, that was it.

"Perhaps," Giles mused. "Could be any number of things really, there is still so much we don't know about the nature of werewolves. Why, until Oz's condition appeared I had all but thought them a myth!" Willow could hear the hint of enthusiasm in his voice. He did love the classics. Everything was fascinating research to Giles. Willow admired that. She too enjoyed the diligence of study and the fulfilment that came from learning - wether the topic be science or supernatural. She found it slightly less exciting though, when the research project was her boyfriend. (The subheading - his ever changing moods as related to the lunar cycle.)

"I come bearing caffeinated beverages!"

Xander entered the library in a typical display of exuberance; that only he could muster for such a late hour. Willow and Giles both hastily shushed him. "What's with the shushing? You'd think we were in a..." Xander trailed off as he approached the table. Clutched to his chest he carried half a dozen cans of coke and a thermos (that Willow could only presume contained coffee). In his spare hand he also clutched several bags of assorted snacks.

She couldn't help but smile at Xander's efforts to turn late night Oz watch into some type of sleepover, rather than glorified babysitting. She hated to think of it like that, but she knew that's what Oz saw it as. Is that why he was mad at her? Was she acting too much like a mother, telling him to be careful, watching over him? What happened to the time when her babbling and giddiness was endearing? Maybe the male repellent that had always worked so well on the likes of Xander and the rest of the male populous, was finally working on Oz as well. She tried to suppress the thought, not wanting to cause a scene in present company.

"Yes, well as long as Xander's here I might retire for the evening." Giles said, reappearing at the entrance to his office, briefcase and coat in hand. "Will you two be all right?"

"Of course, how could you ever presume an element of danger in leaving two teenagers in an abandoned school with a vicious werewolf? I dunno about you but I am predicting high levels of fun and hilarity!" Xander finished by stuffing his face with a handful of chips from the packet he had just opened.

Willow smiled and turned to Giles, who was giving an oblivious Xander a rather disapproving look. "Don't worry Giles we'll be fine. Be on your merry way!" She finished with a smile that attempted to hide her uncertainty at being left with only Xander to deal with the currently dormant werewolf.

Giles nodded, and began heading towards the door, he turned back to them just before he exited. "Willow, remember if he wakes up again..." before he could finish Willow held up the tranquiliser gun beside her with a grim smile.

"I know." She said, and with a great deal of British mumblings pertaining to his confidence in her ability, Giles exited.

Xander munched cheerfully on his crisps before turning to look at the sleeping werewolf. He took a few steps towards him and knelt to look at him more keenly; a move he never would have attempted had Oz been awake.

"So how's the patient this evening?" He said ogling at Oz in his wolf form while stuffing his mouth with another handful of chips. Xander had never really gotten the chance to look at Oz's wolf form up close before. The part of him that aimed to preserve his life had always hindered that. He felt morbidly curious about Oz's wolf side, and was pleased with the opportunity to see the wolf up close.

Willow looked at Xander ogling at the wolf in the cage and felt a pang of anger rush through her. "Xander stop it! That's not some animal at the zoo in there, it's Oz!"

Xander continued to stare at the sleeping form of the werewolf, not turning around. "Come on Wils, I'm just curious is all."

Willow who had already climbed to her feet, took a step towards Xander raising her voice much louder than would really be deemed necessary. "Stop it! Oz is your friend and you're treating him like some sort of glorified tourist attraction! He-He's not. He's a person and you, can't go round treating him like that! Sure he's not here so much, but that doesn't change anything. You can't just take out your feelings of neglect on him when he's vulnerable like this. M-maybe, just maybe he really doesn't know what he's done and if you'd just explain it to him everything might be just fine!" She tried to stop her voice from faltering and she all but succeeded. Xander, still crouched on the balls of his feet, swivelled to look at Willow, taken off guard by her outburst.

He began to straighten himself out. "Look Wil, I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." A vicious growl suddenly erupted. Xander jumped backwards, spilling chips everywhere in his frantic scrabble to distance himself from the angry werewolf.

* * *

The wolf was awoken by the sound of yelling. High pitched grunts in a language it couldn't understand, but it could sense the tone;

Angry,

Hurt,

Defensive.

A smell tickled the wolfs nose, and a growl instantly erupted from within. The instinct to protect over ran any other.

_Must protect mate. _

The cage shook as the wolf lunged at it.

* * *

"I think your boyfriend woke up," Xander mumbled starring at the looming form of the werewolf at its full height. Still clutching the limp chip packet, he proceeded to back away until he was standing just in front of Willow. The wolf let out a ferocious growl and lunged against the cage. Willow and Xander stood frozen starring up at the giant werewolf lunging again and again at the cage.

Xander's eyes frantically watched the cage wobble, flicking to the sides where it was bolted in. "It's not gonna hold." He breathed softly, instinctively putting out a hand to protect her. "Remember Willow, that thing's not Oz." He breathed low again.

"Yes it is." Without allowing herself another moment to think she grabbed the tranquiliser off the desk and took aim at the wolf. A loud yelp was heard from the wolf as it hit him. Willow was caught off guard by the sound of pain the Werewolf emitted; however, it didn't seem to stir it from its task to break down the cage. Willow pushed past a limp Xander, until she was only a few feet away from the book cage. The werewolf flopped down onto all fours as she approached. It continued to growl at Xander, who backed further towards Giles' office.

"Wil..." he called hesitantly. Willow gave a sad smile through her tears, which she now realised were running slowly down her cheeks.

"Sorry baby, please don't hate me in the morning." Before she could lose her nerve, she raised the tranquiliser gun and fired once more at the werewolf, who stayed standing for half a minute before slumping to the floor of the cage. Willow watched the wolf sadly, anxiously watching to make sure his chest was still rising and falling as it should be. "Please don't hate me," she murmured again. "Please don't hate me." She felt a hand tenderly touch her shoulder, and turning she buried her head into Xander's shoulder, the tranquiliser gun clattering nosily to the floor.

* * *

The first thing he felt was the unmistakable sensation that he'd just been run down by a train. Twice. Opening first one eye, and then the other, he recognized the far too familiar floor of the Sunnydale High Library. He groaned as he pushed his torso up off the ground.

"Agh!" He let out a gasp as he realised that there was not one but two tranquiliser darts still sticking out of him. Suddenly horror stricken he jumped to his feet. He was still in the book cage. He tentatively approached the door of the cage, looking out on the library floor. He laced his fingers through the bars, looking out on the stillness that filled the space. A lone figure sat on the edge of the library front desk.

"Xander," Oz stated slowly, still slightly dazed. Xander nodded curtly at him once. There was silence for a long moment. Finally Oz plucked up the nerve to break it. "Where's Willow?"

"Home," came the short reply. Oz's motor functions were slowly beginning to kick in again, and he finally had the sense to remove the tranquiliser darts from his side. He held them up above the towels that currently helped to shield him. He looked from the darts to Xander and back again.

"Willow?"

"She needed rest. Don't worry, Buffy walked her home." Xander finally slid off the desk. He slowly started walking towards Oz, hands in his pockets. He stopped just short of the cage. "I think we need to talk."

Silence filled the air once again. Oz wasn't sure if Xander expected a response, or ay type of confirmation, so he said the only thing that seemed to still need saying. "Clothes might help."

A moment of awkwardness ensued with Xander suddenly rushing off to try and find the clothes that Willow had left in Giles office. Oz continued to stand, fingers laced through the door, looking out on the silent library; head buzzing from a night he could barely remember.

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_Confused? Curious? Let me know :)_


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